The Liberty Basic Newsletter - Issue #113 - October 2003

Syntax Error: Notes from the Editor

Anyone notice that the year is three quarters over? Time sure flies when you are enjoying programming with Liberty Basic. I am sure everyone is wondering where the month has gone and no October issue.

The Publishing Crew out on the left coast ran into some production issues that really dragged the development and release out, but that was not the worst of it. We found that we were unfortunately short on funds and quite unable to go to press. It seems to be the fate of all the not for profit, subscriber supported circulars these days. But what can I say. Times are tough. We have had to lay off staff and quit funding those expensive golf boodoggles, and yet we still struggle.

Drastic times call for drastic measures. We have for the first time found ourselves turning to advertising to make ends meet here at the LB Newsletter offices, but we finally got the publication off the press and out the door. So, its late, but certainly worth the wait! Here it is - the October 2003 issue of the Liberty Basic Newsletter.

You are going to find some really great stuff in this issue,but first - a word from one of our sponsors:

We are excited to have as one of our features the Plot3D routines by the master of the home grown Liberty Basic - not for profit - CAD market - Mr. Tom Nally. Here are the routines that you can incorporate into your own programs 'Making Humble CAD Technology Usable" in your projects. Be ready to be amazed.

Dennis McKinney has generously provided a very compelling submission covering the subject of sharing data between applications. This is a fantastic article and demo covering an API based technique for accomplishing this task. If you are someone who is scratching their head wondering how to get two running LB programs to share the same data - this is a must read.

Gordon Sweet has submitted four compelling articles covering various topics of interest. The beginners notes dovetails nicely with the many beginner notes and articles that are available on the net. An especially interesting contribution is the article on making game sounds without the use of a built in sound system (such as a SoundBlaster board).

There is still more, but first we need to take a moment for a word from another of our generous and deep pocketed sponsors:

John Davidson has at my request encapsulated the essential information about the Libby project - an open source project to produce a Liberty Basic shell that showcases quality Liberty Basic programs at work, as well as providing many useful and fun gadgets for the user community. Read all about it, and then get involved!

Finally your's truely brings you a couple articles, including the long anticipated installment six of the Beginner Series. In it we will be putting the finishing touches on the StarQuest game, adding level and scoring. This issue contains a nice little tutorial on File I/O that is worth catching. We also peel the lid back on creating real live windows and begin to talk about graphics programming. It an action packed edition that you don't want to miss.

We round out the issue with an API demo on getting information about fixed and mapped drives. This one explores a more esoterical call WGetNetConnection.

Sorry again for the untimelyness of the release - hope you enjoy the issue. Let us know how we did. Don't blame the whole team though - this one is all my responsibility!

Brad.